St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-10
WAR ABOUT WHEAT.
Farmers, Buyers and Elevator Men at
Darlington at Loggerheads.
CHARGES OF A CONSPIRACY.
The Railroad Accused Of Partially
The Commissioners Endeavoring to
Settle the Difficulty.
Snecial to the Globe

DARLINGTON. OAK, Oct. 9. - The
farmers and wheat buyers in this county
are greatly chagrined over the workings
of the last grain and warehouse bill,
which was supposed all along to have
been passed in their interests. Up to
the present time, OF within few days
past, everything has been serene, and
but little cause for complaint against
either the railroad company or the old
lines of elevator companies has been
found. The last few days, however.
have entirely changed this aspect
of the matter, and hard
fight is now on between the
farmers on one side and the railroads
and elevator companies in this county
on the other. The prospects are that
the farmers, as usual, will get the most
of it. 1t is stated here, upon good au-
at this place work on the Duluth mar
ket with margin of Is cents, while
other commission men in Duluth are
willing to handle grain for IA cents.
One of the citizens of Darlington, Rob
ert Hunter, man of capital, integrity
and business experience, started in to
buy wheat on platform, erected on
Northern Pacific siding that runs
through land belonging to himself
He commenced purchasing wheat from
the farmers and loading cars from his
platform, and got more wheat than both
the other elevators, as he gave cent or
2 cents buShel more than they did.
HE FORCED THEM TO SHOW THEIR HAND
by compelling them to go upon the
streets and pay as much or more than
ha did for tha farmarC' grain IT would
work this way: If man had 100 bush
els of grain already in an elevator, not
having sold the same, and would bring
into town another 100 bushels in wagons
on the street, to keep Mr.. Hunter
from getting the latter grain, the
elevator men would offer 81 cents per
buShel for it, and at the same time COM
pei the man to take "a cents for the
grain he already had in the elevator,
subject to the usual fifteen days cOndi
tiOnS. AS before stated, Mr.. Hunter
was getting all the wheat, or else the
farmers were shipping it themselves.
The next move soon appeared, and
seems to show the combination of the
railroad and elevator people in the deal.
The station agent received orders from
The company not to give any more cars
to private buyers. but to supply eleva
tors before anyone else. This
settled the whole matter with
wheat buyers in Covington,
and the result is that neither
Mr.. Hunter nor any one else can get
cars in which to ship-eXcept the ele-
vators. If this is the intent of the rail-
road and warehouse law-said to be so
fair and equitable for both the farmers
and elevators alike-itS business is not
seen in this vicinity.
INTENSE EXCITEMENT WAS CAUSED
by the PRONUNCIATION of the order above
referred to, and one unacquainted with
the facts would have supposed that
some riot had been inaugurated from
the manner in which people gathered
ON street corners, in the streets and
elsewhere to discuss and protest against
the high-handed outrage of the railroad
and elevator vampires.
At Minnewaukan the elevator COM
panieS are said to have very limited ia
cilitieS for the shipment of grain. A
writer in the SiftlngS, of last week,
states that the elevator can only receive
few hundred bushels at time, and is
very inconvenient to load into. There
has been large crop grown i'll that
country. The farmers are poor, and
their good luck in this respect seems
to them like GOd-Send. They intended
to load cars to ship themselves, but the
order to refuse private buyers cars has
crushed out this little enterprise with
discouraging suddenness. 1t is claimed
that threshing machiees have had to
shut down because farmers have no place
to store grain, and many OF them have
had tie go to the expense of erecting bins
for storage, while machines are shut
down and good weather is fast going by.
Railroad Commissioners Boynton and
Griggs, after repeated notifications to
the board, arrived here to-day, and
claim that they will make fair settle
ment of the difficulty and a.thOrough in
vestigatiOn of the matter They will
also proceed to Minnewaukan and at
tempt to straighten out the affair there.
1t is sincerely hoped that this will be